Chapter Fifty-One

C HAPTER F IFTY-ONE

‘Oh, Naralía,’ Sarilyn says as soon as I appear behind the bars of her cell. She rises from her seated position on the ground. ‘That dress.’ She shakes her head and smiles as she stares at it up and down. ‘You truly make a luscious bride.’

I’m reluctant to give her any form of gratitude. ‘It belonged to Aurelia,’ I say it straight, and her brows jump. ‘Why did you want to speak with me?’ I add idly, seeing as my mind is still thinking about Freya.

Sarilyn blows out a breath and spears me with curious eyes. ‘I heard you have allied with the Dark Elves.’

My shoulders tense, and as I move closer, I lift the skirt of my gown so it doesn’t collect dirt. ‘Where did you get that from?’

‘Your little friend who follows you around like a lost pet.’ She cocks her head from side to side. ‘The Elf.’

I sigh. Ruvyn.

‘He’s quite the chatterbox once you rile him up.’

I should have never brought Ruvyn into all of this. He is the only other companion who knows about my visits with Sarilyn. He is the one who takes care of her necessities. It was only a matter of time before she began to get inside his head.

‘King Hedris wants to dethrone Darius,’ I tell her. There is no point in evading the situation any longer. ‘We are simply preparing ourselves.’

She hums vaguely. ‘I thought you never wanted a fight?’

‘I don’t,’ I huff. ‘All I have ever wanted is to prevent us from going to war, yet it seems all odds are against me.’ My mind circles back to Freya’s words.

From decay and ruin, they reclaim their vengeance . . .

My hands feel clammy and nausea tickles my throat as I grimace, turning my head to the side. I don’t want to think about what that means, or even think about it at all, but I can’t get it out of my mind. Freya felt something – something that happened just to her.

‘When I first met with the seers,’ Sarilyn says quietly, and my gaze drifts to hers only to find her staring far off at the walls, ‘they used to live deep in the woods. I still remember the one I visited. She was living with witches at the time.’ Under her breath, a disdainful laugh bubbles up her throat. ‘Twin witches.’

I stay rooted to the spot, not knowing whether to speak or even breathe.

‘When the seer told me of what could happen, I retaliated by—’

Knowing where she is going with this, I cut her off, gritting my teeth. ‘You killed them.’

Her eyes snap my way. ‘I made Erion kill them,’ she says, as if it were any better. ‘The twins, but not the seer. I wanted her to know that I could change the future however I wanted. That nothing would stop me, not a fight, not a dragon, and much less a reincarnation of the so-called Solaris.’ Contempt colours her expression in a way that reminds me of the old Sarilyn, the one who did everything she could to win.

Yet a moment later, that old loathing cracks and she drops her shoulders with a sigh. ‘I suppose, though, that there are times when, no matter what you do, you cannot change the spoken future.’

‘That’s not true.’ I say it in a whisper, as if I’m afraid to admit something I am unsure about myself. ‘Maybe . . . you went about it the wrong way. Chose paths that resulted in the opposite outcome to what you wanted.’

Sarilyn’s eyes are on me as she considers it. Then she backs away further into her cell and sits down on the grimy floor. She is so used to the dungeons now that the dirt and bones of previous prisoners no longer disgust her.

‘Well.’ She takes a breath. ‘Time is ticking, Naralía. I feel I have kept you down here long enough. I doubt you want to be late to your own wedding, do you?’

No. No, I do not.

Still, something tells me that Sarilyn found an excuse to bring me down here. She might not say it to my face, nor do I think she will ever have the courage to do so, but I know that in some depth of her heart, she enjoys my company.

I don’t bid her goodbye. I decide that a simple nod will suffice as I turn my back to her.

‘Naralía?’ she says. I whirl to her, dragging the light layers of my gown with me in my hands. ‘Good luck in your new life.’ She surprises me with a genuine smile, despite a certain sadness lingering in her dark eyes. ‘I expect you to thrive more than I ever could have.’

The raw and earnest tone in her voice wraps around me, affecting my heart more than I care to admit to myself.

I want to think it is her just manipulating me to feel this way.

I want to believe it is just her way of toying with me.

Perhaps then, it wouldn’t make me feel such guilt for someone who caused me so much pain in the first place.

I scold myself as I spare a quick glance at Ruvyn as he comes to fetch me through the flickering, sconced corridor and faces Sarilyn’s curious stare.

There will be no going back after this . . .

The air is humid as I walk through the fields back to the castle alongside Ruvyn. For the entire journey back from the dungeons, Ruvyn did not speak a word, nor did he give me a single clue as to what might be going through his mind.

Until now.

As I look at him, he clears his throat, opens his mouth, and closes it again.

I stop and lift a finger at him. ‘Don’t say a word.’

His lips twitch. ‘I wasn’t planning to,’ he lies, bowing his head. ‘Lady Nara.’

I sigh, annoyed that today isn’t going how I thought it would.

‘Although,’ Ruvyn suddenly starts. I send him a glare, which he ignores. ‘I do wish to know what you plan to tell everyone once they realise—’

A strange shadow comes from above, as dozens of birds slice through the sky with urgent squawks that cut off Ruvyn’s words. Our gazes are drawn upwards, and we watch with intensity as the flock flees from the north.

‘Are they—’

A sense of foreboding tears in my chest. ‘They’re scared.’ I glance back down at Ruvyn and am about to speak again when a sharp pain twists inside my gut, and I double over, clutching my stomach.

When the time comes, you’ll know.

I shake my head with terror.

Ruvyn is saying my name, asking what is wrong, but I can’t—I can’t—

We’ll see each other very soon.

My throat tightens, each breath escaping me in ragged gasps as I try to straighten and slowly turn on my heels. My vision tunnels, merging all the birds, and I know then that the worst is about to come.

I stumble into Ruvyn, clutching his arms. ‘I need you to ring the bells and inform everyone.’

He looks lost, his dark eyes wide with alarm. ‘Inform everyone of what? Lady Nara, please. I implore you to calm down.’

‘I can’t!’ I draw in another sharp breath. ‘He’s coming—he’s—Aurum’s coming.’

Right then, as if speaking those words into existence, the air becomes thick with the pungent aroma of decay, and from where the volcanoes lie beyond the hills, an unmistakable shade of green shadows fog the sky.

Ruyvn’s hands go slack, and I start to back away, my gaze trained on the shadows.

When you’re at your happiest, surrounded by those dear to you, basking in a triumph that should have been mine, know that I’ll be lurking in the dark, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

As Aurum’s words echo inside me, I take off in a sprint, feeling the deep pain of each pounding step of my feet inside my heeled boots.